my journey through the depression jungle

equal rights for the bring-me-down emotions

have you ever noticed how the crappy bring-me-down emotions get the short shift? how they don’t get equal treatment with their cousins the pick-me-up emotions? think about it.

think about when someone shares a pick-me-up emotion. what is the typical response? it is usually met with a equally pick-me-up response.

p1: i am having a good day.
p2: that’s great to hear! ( and if it someone particularly close, you’ll also here,” can i give you a hug?”

the bring–me-down emotions don’t get equal treatment. often times the first attempt is to change the emotion or some how make it better.

p1: i am having a bad day.
p2: you are? how can i make you happy? how can i help you make this badness go away? how can i make you better?

the pick-me-up emotions can just be. they are warmly accepted like a nice piece of warm apple pie. the bring-me-down emotions are pushed away. people tend to run from them as if they carry the ebola virus.

is it any wonder people have a difficult time sharing the bring-me-down emotions. few people are willing to receive them. without a willingness for reception, the expression of the emotion falls incomplete. after so many incomplete passes, the attempts to share the bring-me-down emotions become less and less. they just stay bottled up inside with nowhere to go.

unfortunately, inside is not a good place for these bring-me-down emotions to be. they eat and gnaw at the emotional well being of an individual. left to fester, a person can begin to wonder are these feelings okay to have? do these feelings make me less of a person? and worse yet, because i have these feelings, am i even lovable? maybe not since people tend to run from them.

what if the bring-me-down emotions got offered equal status as the pick-me-up emotions? what if people could learn to not run away from them, to openingly receive them?

people would be willing to share them. they would learn that it is okay to share these bring-me-down emotions. these horrid emotions would start coming out instead of being left inside to stew and fester, and continue to do damage. perhaps with this progress, the years of emotional wounding could begin to heal. perhaps people could begin to feel whole again.

it’s not that hard. it’s treatment is almost like the pick-me-up emotions.

p1: i am having a bad day.
p2: that makes me sad. i bet you feel sad, too. would you like a hold?

the change is sutle, i know, but powerful. the difference is don’t run from the feeling. don’t change the subject. be willing to face the emotion head on. people are willing to do this and do this with pick-me-up emotions, why not with the bring-me-down emotions?

help me. help me to submit an amendment to the united states constitution granting equal rights to the bring-me-down emotions, whereas people should not run from them but treat them in a similar fashion as the pick-me-up emotions.

and if not the united states constitution, how about your own constitution? make an agreement to treat the bring-me-down emotions in a similar way as you treat pick-me-up emotions. ask others to the same. soon we will have a groundswell. in my grand glorified world, the groundswell grows and becomes far more powerful than any piece of paper. and we will all be better off because of it.

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About bipolarsojourner

i have struggled with episodic depression for years. i then received a diagnosis of being bipolar, only to find out i didn’t. ends up my psychiatrist really meant to say that multiple bouts of depression are often best treated like bipolar. i had already started this blog as bipolar sojourner and didn't want to switch it over. i am documenting my journeys through my depression jungle.

this is me-i’m the one in the middle

i have struggled with episodic depression for years. i then received a diagnosis of being bipolar, only to find out i didn’t. ends up my psychiatrist really meant to say that multiple bouts of depression are often best treated like bipolar. i had already started this blog as bipolar sojourner and didn't want to switch it over. i am documenting my journeys through my depression jungle.